Road Trip Miami Beach to Charlotte

I did not do anything to prepare for the return leg. I had the internet map print outs that brought me down to Miami and used them in reverse. Distance 750 miles each way. Duration two days each way plus several days in Miami.

To Savanna

I left at about 7:30 AM. and quickly got on to Route 95 North. We drove to the Georgia border making a major stop only for lunch. We stopped at the Georgia Visitors Center and decided to see Jeckyll Island, St. Simons Island, and Brunswick along the way to Savanna. To get to these destinations, we left route 95 at exit 29 in Georgia and went North on Route 17. The turnoff for Jeckyll Island was 6 miles after the exit and then there was another 4 miles along a causeway.

We passed over a bridge and stopped at a booth where we paid $3 for parking on the island.

We proceeded and ahead and after about a mile hit the beach areas. The beach had several access and parking areas with a number of small wood bathroom buildings. The beach as far as I could see had only about 20 people on it at about 4:pm. I swam a bit in the rough water finding it warmer than even Miami Beach.

After swimming we went to the historic district. The homes consist of “cottages” built by Rockefeller, Morgan, Astor and other illustrious families. Cottages to them are of course large houses to us. The grounds between the houses are nice to walk on. Tours of the homes are available at 2:00 4:00 pm for $10. We missed the tours and could only find the bookstore and hotel open. We were able to partially see some of the other homes by looking through windows.

Note using the hotel coupon books we could have stayed at a beachfront hotel on the island for about $100 - $120 per night. The impressive hotel in the historic district had rates of at least $179 for peak season.

We returned to route 17 heading North. We passed St. Simons Island but didn’t stop due to time constraints. We missed turning off at the right street to see downtown Brunswick and got back onto route 95 at exit 36 or 37 (one of these exits is the one to use to see these areas if you are heading South.

We had called ahead to check on rooms off Route 95 near Savannah. We came to the Travelodge Exit 87 Savannah/Richmond Hill for about $29.95/night. However, they only had smoking rooms available. We called Scottish Inns but they did not have any more coupon rooms available. Finally, we got a room at Knights Inn for $30 per night. After checking inn and taking the room we had to change rooms when we realized there was no micro/fridge in this room.

Tips for the future: a) Make sure when you call ahead that they have the room of the type you want. B) When they say micro/fridge available make sure the room you are getting has one or where they can be brought in.

To Charlotte, NC

We left about 7:30 am and were surprised by all the fog in the area. The fog lasted about 5 miles but slowed us down only a little because it was not that heavy. We proceeded to Charlotte along routes 95 north, 26 east, and route 77 north. We found cheap gas for $2.51 in York County, SC just outside of Charlotte. Along the way we stopped at both the South Carolina and North Carolina visitor centers to get discount hotel coupon books for possible future use.

Road Trip – Charlotte to Miami Beach

I practice what I preach. On the my recent road trip I planned the trip in the manner I described in a previous blog. Distance 750 miles each way. Duration two days each way plus several days in Miami.

Preparing for the Trip

1 I did not do to much to study areas to visit as I have made this trip before..

2. I obtained maps/driving directions from the internet. In this case Charlotte to Savannah, Savannah to St. Augustine, St. Augustine to Daytona Beach , and Daytona Beach to Miami Beach. I get maps/directions in sections (instead of the whole route) so I know the route to get off the highway to the attractions. If I am going to a specific set of attractions within a city I will get driving directions/maps to each in the order I intend to see them.

3. Checked for room rates on the big three travel sites for St Augustine and Daytona Beach the places I would likely break for the night. I did not worry about the return trip as I would do any planning at my destination. The best room rates I got were $60 for St. Augustine and $60 for Daytona Beach considering only oceanfront hotels. I only checked one of the big three because, I have been having trouble accessing one of them and another was chugging away for too long. I took with me the telephone numbers for all three, just in case I wanted to use them for reservations.

To Savannah:

I left at about 6:00 AM. When I entered South Carolina after about 40 minutes, I didn’t stop at the visitor center because it was closed. Traveling in South Carolina, I hit a number of miles of fog. The fog slowed me down, but was only briefly severe. I then remembered this had happened on a previous trip through this area. We stopped at the Georgia Visitors Center upon entering the state and picked up the three hotel discount coupon books and other tourist information. We reached the Savanna area and I followed directions to Savanna using Route 17 which goes about 10 miles sort of parallel to route 95. We arrived at Savanna and stopped at the Savanna visitors center. We obtained local maps and discount books and got directions to the riverfront. We drove there and parked by meters along the waterfront.

The waterfront has been developed and has restaurants and shops (boutique, tourist, quaint) depending on your point of view. We walked around for a half hour. We skipped the rest of Savanna because we had been here before and found our way back to Route 95.

We stopped at the Florida Visitors Center upon entering the state and picked up the three hotel discount coupon books and other tourist information. We studied the hotel books and decided the best bets were $44.95 for a motel in St. Augustine and $36 for a beachfront motel in Daytona Beach. Because the $36 Daytona Beach beachfront motel was an outlier – we noted two other beachfronts at $44.95. We decided that we wanted to be on the ocean and would spend the night at Daytona Beach.

To St. Augustine:

Exited for St. Augustine and went to the outlet mall right next to the highway. We then proceeded to St. Augustine and parked by Castillo de San Marcos where there was public metered parking (parking lot gets shut and car has to be removed before 5:30 pm when it closes).

St Augustine was founded by the Spanish in 1565 and is the oldest city in America. The Castillo de San Marcos is an old fort that can be toured and that we had seen on a previous trip. We walked from Castillo de San Marcos to St George Street which is a pedestrian only street going 4-5 blocks. Along the street are very old houses now used for boutique/quaint/tourist oriented stores.

We spent about an hour in St. Augustine until 5:00 pm.

To Daytona Beach:

We returned to Route 95 the way we came and drove to Daytona Beach. We exited as directed and again followed Route 17 parallel to Route 95 for about 10 miles. We left turned and went over a bridge to Daytona Beach.

We found the $36 Thunderbird Motel and asked to see a room before signing in (we always do this with road trip motels). Even though the location was good being near the center of Daytona Beach, we didn’t like the rooms so we proceeded to the next choice. The Daytona Beach Club was about 3 blocks further from the center. It turned out to be a 7 story Condo building that had daily rentals managed by a front desk. We checked the ocean view kitchenette and found it nice. Note: they considered the room we had that was along the side of the hotel to be “ocean view” while those directly along the ocean as “ocean front”. We had a balcony on the 6^th. Floor and great views of the coean , beach, and town. After settling in we went down to the beach. I found the ocean water a little cold for my taste, but went swimming in the oceanfront pool.

To Miami Beach

We left the next day and proceeded to Route 95 via International Speedway Blvd. Passing the famous Daytona International Speedway car racetrack and proceeded the remaining roughly 260 miles to Miami Beach. We stayed in Miami Beach several days with family for a family event.

Best coupon rates Asheville and Charlotte NC

I took a round trip road trip from N.C. to Florida and collected the coupon books. Here are my bets for various locations (all information is believed to be accurate – please verify with hotel/motel by calling or reading coupon book carefully). I also note that in addition to the red book and green book there is now also a smaller page format discount book making three coupon books. This can be used to help you plan a trip to these areas, but you will need the actual books to get the rates (some motels may not bother with the coupons or have the same rates without the coupon)

North Carolina Asheville, NC Area -

Rates below are for June-July Sun-Thurs only excl taxes unless otherwise specific

A) Lowest Cost (typically exterior chain based motels or not known whether interior or exterior based on description or hotel picture). All have continental breakfast included unless noted. Generally have outdoor pools.

 

        -    Ramada Inn Maggie Valley $39.95 ($49.95 July) - continental breakfast + hot Belgian waffles, indoor pool

        -    Microtel Inn Maggie Valley $44.95 indoor pool, looks like interior corridors from picture.

        -    Best Western Mountainbrook Inn deluxe continental breakfast, outdoor heated pool, indoor spa

        -    Days Inn Candler $38.95 “bigger breakfast”, “microfidge”

        -    Best Western Hendersonville $45.95 breakfast buffet with homemade waffles, micro-fridge

B) Hot Breakfast, may have interior corridors (either from the description or based on picture of the building)

        -    Quality Inn Tunnel Rd Ashville $49.99 microwave, fridge

        -    Comfort Inn Marion 49.99 indoor pool, micro fridge

C) Other good bets (non-chain based or chains I am not familiar with/do not recognize), Continental breakfast unless noted.

 

-    Relax Inn Bryson City $39.95 no breakfast listed, fridge and microwave

      -    Sleep Inn Morganton $39.95

 

Charlotte, NC and surrounding areas

 

A) Lowest Cost (typically exterior chain based motels or not known whether interior or exterior based on description or hotel picture). All have continental breakfast included unless noted. Generally have outdoor pools.

 

        -    Knights Inn Mayberry, Mount Airy $39.95 no breakfast

        -    Super 8 Motel Jonesville 36.88 (1 bed) 39.88 2 beds no breakfast

        -    Americas Best Value Inn 34.95 (1 bed) 37.95 2 beds no breakfast

        -    Travelodge Statesville 29.99 no breakfast

        -    Super 8 Motel Statesville 39.88 (1 bed) add $4 for 2 beds no breakfast

        -    Motel 6 Statesville $29.99 (1 bed) 34.99 2 beds no breakfast

        -    Econolodge Mathews 35.95 looks like interior corridors from picture

        -    Fairfield Inn queen city drive Charlotte 49.99, deluxe breakfast bar, free airport shuttle

        -    Microtel Inn sugar creek Charlotte $36.95, micro & fridge

        -    Microtel Inn McCullough Dr, Charlotte $39.95, micro & fridge

        -    Microtel Inn Kannapolis,NC $39.00, interior corridors

        -    Days Inn sugar creek Charlotte $26.95 no breakfast

        -    Knights Inn Glenwood Drive, Charlotte $27.99 (interstate travelers only)

        -    Howard Johnson Tuckaseegee Rd , Charlotte $29.99

 

    B) Hot Breakfast, may have interior corridors (either from the description or based on picture of the building)

        -    Comfort Inn Kings Mtn Gastonia $42

        -    Quality Inn Griffith Rd Charlotte $49.99

C) Other good bets (non-chain based or chains I am not familiar with/do not recognize
continental breakfast unless noted.

 

       -    Elk Inn Elkin $39.95 no breakfast

        -    Welborn’s Motel Hamptonnville/Yadkinville no breakfast 28.99

        -    Royal Inn & Suites Axor st. Charlotte $30.99 no breakfast

        -    Wingate Inn I 85 service Rd Charlotte 52.99 deluxe continental breakfast, interior corridors, free airport shuttle, whirlpool, fitness center,refridge,microwave

        -    Brookwood Inn Sugar Creek, Charlotte 32.95 , micro & fridge

      

Cruise Deals

I got an e-mail from cruise411.com with some pretty good cruise deals.

Many sites list the cruise prices with the port charges and just excluding the taxes which are a relatively small number so you have to careful at what you are looking at. I had to actually go in to try to book the cruise before finding out the impact of port charges and taxes which is a significant portion of the cost. I like the sites that include the port charges/government fees better because it is easier to get a handle on the true cost of the cruise.

Best Deals From Cruise411.com (all prices cruise only and includes all taxes and fees)

7 Night CARIBBEAN:

7 Night CARIBBEAN Cruise roundtrip[ Houston $446.90 per person double occ. (Oct. 21,28) . Note the cruise was listed at $244 and port charges/taxes added $200.69.

Other dates are Oct. 7, 14 and Nov.25, Dec 2, Dec. 9 were up to $55 more expensive but still a good deal.

The cruise has 3 stops in Mexico and 1 in Belize.

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7 Nite Bermuda round trip from New York at $627.50

Dates at this price: Sept. 10, 17 and 24; Oct 1, 8, 15 and 22

Makes 3 different stop in Bermuda.

Bargain Cruising

Prologue

The stock market is not behaving very well lately and there is a lot of concern over the real estate market. It is worthy to try to save money while having a luxury vacation. Today we’ll focus on cruise vacations.

 

Bargain Cruises - What You Can Expect

When I lived in the New York City area, I sometimes vacationed at the large resort hotels in the Catskill Mountains. Rates per person, that included 3 full course meals, where generally $100 or often a lot more per person. I tried to limit my vacations to the $70-100 range by looking for specials that were sometimes available.

Somehow the $100 per day per person number has stuck in my head and even though there has been much inflation from those days, I like to limit my cruise costs to $100 per day or less. This means paying $700 or less for an eight day - seven night cruise. I have typically paying $499 for a seven day cruise. Lately there has been less choice for the $700 per day range I am guessing due to demand, general inflation, and fuel prices.

The prices I quote above include port charges (a substantial part of the cost) but not taxes, tips or transportation/airfare to the cruise city.

Finding the Bargain Cruises

You can book cruises on-line through the big three travel sites. There are also a number of specialized cruise sites that you can find by googling or using any other search engine.

The cruise sites I use allow you to book the cruise on-line, while others will send you information via e-mail or call you once you fill out an on-line form.

The last time I booked on-line, I found the same cruise at the same price at several sites. However, one site had a free outside cabin/ocean view upgrade plus a free $50 debit card. I usually, double check price with the cruise line by phone just in case they can give it to you cheaper. Some cruise lines offer discounts for past guests and for mature audiences (over 55). If you book your cruise on-line definitely call the cruise line afterward to see that everything is ok. Also, there may be some choices you have to make in terms of dining seating.

It usually takes up to two weeks to get tickets – so if you book at the last minute call the cruise line and ask them to hold the tickets/other material at the terminal or ask them to over night the material the latter at added cost.

Planning a Flexible Motor Trip

Prologue

I was a little confused. I though it was bargain traveling while actually the group is called budget traveling. It won’t change much of what I do because they are similar. Budget traveling implies a limited budget therefore emphasizing low cost. Bargain traveling means getting a great deal. Going for luxury is good, provided it’s a great deal. Some people actually think it’s a mental crime to pay retail and can’t stop talking about their bargain purchases.

Planning for Bargain Motel Rates on a Flexible Motor Trip

1. Have an idea of the minimum and maximum days for the trip and get approximate dates at each location.
2. Look at AAA travel books (if you are a member) and the big three on line travel companies for motel/hotels in the areas you will be visiting.
3. Make cancelable reservations in places having difficult to get rooms (or all locations if your nervous about going place without reservations) e.g. downtown big cities and resort areas in season. The on line services usually have cancellation fees so you probably want to make these initial reservations directly with the hotels/motels. Also make sure you know what the hotel/motel cancellation policy is and cancel in time if you find a better deal or your plans change.
4. Keep information on the best deals you have found and take the phone numbers of the big three travel companies with you so that you have all the options available to you

To get the best motel rates

1. Obtain the discount motel travel books from the state visitors bureaus when crossing state borders on a major highway (see my previous blog).
2. Identify the best motel deals for the areas you want to go to and compare them to the deals you have already researched or reserved.
3. Select the best deal, make reservations as necessary, and cancel exiting reservations no longer needed.

Notes:

• You can make reservations with the on line travel sites even the same day via internet or by phone.

• Sometimes discount motel books are available in newspaper type dispensers at other rest areas or outside the state visitors bureaus when closed.

• City or regional tourist information centers may also have the motel discount books.

• Obtaining accommodations as described above and researching what to see can take a lot of time but has worked well for me.

 

A hotel room - Why not a suite?

If you’re traveling to a major city on a budget, consider booking an apartment or suite hotel instead of a standard room. Specifically, find a room w/ a kitchen especially if you’re staying four or more nights. Instead of eating out twice a day, you can look to have an eat-in dinner or make take-away lunches.

If you’re driving to your destination, consider bringing some key ingredients from home such as coffee, cooking oils, spices, condiments, and cereals. This is especially important if you’re only traveling for a few nights and want to avoid buying some of these items at a tourist destination. Also, don’t forget to bring some of your better cooking tools such as a good knife or frying pan.

If you’re going to a foreign destination, some of the best local (and often cheaper) produce and meat/poultry can be found at markets. I like visiting the markets early on my first day of the trip to load up on ingredients. Markets tend to carry only seasonal items so be flexible on your menu and ingredients.

If you like take home food, why not on your trip? Instead of eating out, bring back a pizza from a local restaurant, a rotisserie chicken, or even Chinese or Indian take-out. Just do a little bit of research of what types of food are really good at your travel destination.